Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 8

17. How to Fight Like a Christian-Part 2 (Eph. 6:10-18) Audio

17. How to Fight Like a Christian-Part 2 (Eph. 6:10-18)
Bethel Church | Jackson, Michigan
Pastor Ken Pierpont
August 6, 2023 AM

17. How to Fight Like a Christian-Part 2 (Eph. 6:10-18) Video

17. How to Fight Like a Christian-Part 2 (Eph. 6:10-18)
Bethel Church | Jackson, Michigan
Pastor Ken Pierpont
August 6, 2023 AM

Choring Together | Bittersweet Farm Journal | August 1, 2023

Out On Bittersweet

Not much is new out on Bittersweet. Since we don’t have any oaks, the last of the trees to lose it’s leaves are the Walnuts, but early in August a few walnut leaves will yellow and waft down from high overhead. I noticed this the year Hope America and Tim married in the north meadow and now I notice it every year. The other night I was playing my harmonica out on the porch and saw the fist yellow walnut lead flutter down. How swiftly the summer is waning. I never remember a summer passing so swiftly.

Summer camps are in their last weeks here in Michigan. I’m always heartened to think of the thousands of young people who hear the gospel in a joyful loving context at summer camps. This summer I was able to speak at a family camp and a youth camp.

For the rest of the summer and fall I hope to stay around Bittersweet and serve Bethel.

I hope you are yours are well and you are enjoying this final full month of summer.

Choring Together

In the years when our home was alive with children there were multiplied chores and routine errands and mundane tasks to attend to. Many of these landed on Saturday mornings. Around the farm it called “choring.”

In a family of ten, though, you rarely have to do anything alone and having a companion significantly lightens the load. Anything hard or mundane or burdensome is transformed into something else when you have a good companion or helper.

With a companion, a duty can become a delight. With a helper the load is lightened and the burden shared. With a friend along, any joy is multiplied. When you are joined by a child almost any event can be turned into an adventure. Take a child along you turn a trip for an oil change into a treasured memory or a learning field trip.

With a little companion you can learn a song or a Bible verse or even a Bible verse in song on the way to the hardware to pick up furnace filters. I have a 41 year old pastor-son. Today his wife shared a picture of him at a concert belting out a song from one of his favorite bands. I remember him in the car seat beside me teaching him a little chorus I made up to learn Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord by rock and my salvation.” I don’t remember the chore or the errand but I remember the song and I will never forget the companionship of the boy.

I know this is true from experience from being a son and being a dad. As a boy we lived for a while in a the tiny village of Logansville, Ohio. Dad pastored the Logansville Christian Church there. We lived in the parsonage. We would made a trip to the dump on River Road every week or two. Dad would always recruit his first-born son (me) and often sister Melony and brother Kevin (Nathan was an infant when we lived there and he’s become very productive now, but he was kinda’ useless back them). We would load up the garbage and Dad would say, “Hey, grab the BB gun. We will plink some cans when we are done.”

That was about 56 years ago now but it lives in a happy place in my heart. Errands and chores can be turned into adventures and memories with a fifteen-dollar BB gun.

It’s been true as a dad and grandpa, too. When Lois and I had our own crew the errands included treats or a side trips to the library, which may not seem like fun to you, but to eight homeschooled children growing up without TV or the Internet before cell phones, and iPads and computers in every room the library was a treat and a great way to explore the outside world. Librarians were our “Google” back then. The children often remind me of how they loved those trips through the countryside to the library on a snowing afternoon.

Back before public radio became open leftist propaganda. I stumbled on a wonderful and informative show that aired every Saturday morning car talk. It was hosted by brothers Ray and Tom, and it was a mix of good humor and automotive horse since it was often the soundtrack for our Saturday morning trips to the barber or to the oil change place unless it was September through November and then it was always well big 10 football pregame banter and bands belting out college football fight songs.

So I know there are chores to do, and there are bills to pay, and I know there are duties and obligations to keep. Sure you have dues to pay in unrelenting taxes but with a little creativity, you don’t have to slog your way through life like the Volga Boatman (Google it and you’ll see what I mean). Just grab a BB gun or route yourself into the path of treats. Take a companion with you.

And when your work is done and your errands are run and your chores are through you can bask in the pleasure of a job well and and you have deepens a friendship.

Bittersweet Farm
August 2023

16. How to Fight Like a Christian-Part 1 (Eph. 6:10-18) Video

16. How to Fight Like a Christian-Part 1 (Eph. 6:10-18) Video
Bethel Church | Jackson, Michigan
August 2, 2023 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont

16. How to Fight Like a Christian-Part 1 (Eph. 6:10-13) Audio

How to Fight Like a Christian (Part 1)
Bethel Jackson, Michigan
Pastor Ken Pierpont
July 30, 2023 AM

15. Know Your Enemy (Eph. 6:10-13) Audio

Know Your Enemy (Eph. 6:10-13)
Bethel Church | Jackson, Michigan
Pastor Ken Pierpont
July 23, 2023 AM

On Purity Culture

It’s becoming vogue to attack “purity culture.” I suspect many who are caustic and critical about what they label “purity culture” are really resisting God’s commands to live holy, pure lives.

We are created by God. Marriage and married love are created by God. God is devoted to human flourishing and has given us truth to guide us to the highest possible experience of human joy and pleasure. When we reject or resist his ways and his laws we diminish our own joy and well-being.

Conversely, creating a culture of adding to God’s law is a distortion of God’s law. It is a subte form of sin. Manipulating behavior is damaging to people, not helpful. It does not produce purity and holiness it disfigures holiness into something shallow and powerless and ugly. If that is what you mean by purity culture, you are right. It is not helpful. It is harmful.

When we sin sexually and we are not shown the way of the gospel, the good news of cleansing and forgiveness, and the way out of shame—great damage comes to the soul. When we try to manipulate behavior and not motivate genuine godliness we do great harm even when we label it with high-sounding religious terms and biblical words.

But those who worship God in the beautify of holiness, avoiding sexual sins or confessing them at the foot of hte cross are healthy, happy, and whole.

Teaching in the 90’s on Christian betrothal and “courtship” mixed biblical teaching and extra-biblical prohibitions. When we went beyond Scripture we erred and that was not helpful. For some it was harmful, as it always is when we add to Scripture. But when we faithfully teach what the scriptures commend and forbid we are blessed by God.

Hear what Jesus said, “…whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teachers other to do the same will be called least in the kindgdom of heaven, but whoever does and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19)

Every church and every Christian family should be a culture of love, joy, peace, holiness and purity.

A book I found sound and balanced and helpful as we were raising our own children was this somewhat autobiographical book by the late Elisabeth Eliot.

 

Ken Pierpont

July 19, 2023

 

 

 

July 19, 2023

Sunlight in the Woods

Across the road south of the house is a woods wrapped over a hill. Every morning I pull back the curtain and look out my window into that woods.

Some mornings in winter it looks like an army of brown pencils standing sentinel. For a few mornings in spring it is carpeted with Trillium or purple wildflowers. Some mornings it is snowy as Narnia. Through the summertime from mid May to late August it is dark and cool and green. In early October it blushes with color and then late in the month it turns bright yellow and red and gold and orange and flames with glorious hues that draw me like a powerful magnet in my soul. In November it is muted gold and brown and finally gray pencils again.

This morning a bright shaft of sunlight beams at an angle down to the forest floor and reminds me of the power of contemplating the glories of God in the things he created.

I remind myself never to speed past blue water and sparkling sunlight. Never ignore the antics of songbirds, or the banter of children, or the music or water over rocks or the heart-pounding rumble of thunder and the arresting flash of lightning or the charming little lights hovering over the meadow when fireflies are courting on a summer evening. Never allow your soul to be deadened to wonder and the beauty around you but let it ever draw your very soul upward to God.

“Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.” ? C.S.

P.S. The Japanese have a word for sunlight filtered by trees. https://www.awatrees.com/2017/02/16/komorebi-sunshine-through-trees

Cobbler on the Porch | Bittersweet Farm Journal | July 16, 2023

Cobbler on the Porch

At the risk of leaving you with the false impression that my life is perfect I need to give you a report on today. It’s the Lord’s Day and the sky was blue all day out on Bittersweet Farm and all over the whole Mitten State today.

Yesterday was the exact beginning of the last half of summer. After a good day at church and a satisfying lunch with Lois and Hope (Hope joins us when Tim has to work. He is a nurse) I came home and enjoyed a nice, long uninterrupted nap.

When I woke up I discovered that the temperatures had dropped and I spent some time out on the porch and playing my guitar and harmonica while evening settled in.

While I was there Lois came out and said, “You want to eat out there or come inside?”

Music to my ears. “Let’s eat out there,” I said.

She came out with big bowls of fresh blackberry cobbler, with globs of vanilla ice cream melting over it. (Thank you Diane Layman for picking and cleaning them and bringing them to church for us). I am unashamed to admit I had a second bowl. Hey it was supper and I skipped the donuts in Sunday School today.

I didn’t make any of this up. It was not a dream. This really happened today. I’m just reporting the bare facts.

In the evening I took a slow roll on my bike “Happy,” and then settled into my desk in the corner of the upstairs by the open window to enjoy the night air and write to you.

Bad things sometimes happen to me and bad things happen all around me. Sometimes my heart is heavy and things grieve me. There is brokenness around me, against me and within me, but today was a sweet day and I had hot blackberry cobbler on the porch on a quiet, cool Michigan summer Sunday evening. I wanted to tell somebody.

Paul told the Romans, “Rejoice with those who rejoice…”

I hope you had a beautiful day and you feel loved. I hope you enjoyed good weather, good worship, good music, good food, and good friends today, but if you didn’t and there was sadness or anxiety or hardship or shame or guilt or grief or remorse or fear, or pain or brokenness, remember the God who created sunshine and blackberries and inspired people to create bicycles and puppies and hot air balloons and bluegrass music is alive and well and still he rewards those who diligently seek him. There will be a day here on earth when heaven will come down and he will make everything new and that should put joy in your heart even when you don’t have any blackberry cobbler out on the porch.

Bittersweet Farm
July 16, 2023

Mowing and Praying

Mowing and Praying on Bittersweet Farm

This evening I had an idea while I was mowing. There is a little place in the east yard I associate with Hannah. When I mow beyond the cluster of Maples in the side yard I think of the winter day Dale hopelessly mired his truck there. It’s been about three or four years now and I’m sure Dale would like me to forget it. The ruts are no longer there but I remember sweet Dale when I mow there. 

I could remember Dale installing the hickory hardwood floors in every room of the house and the kitchen twice. I could remember him for installing hardwood floors in our house in Riverview, which may have sold the house or for a hundred other really commendable things, but when I mow the side yard I think of Hannah and Dale on a very, very sad day and the shady little memorial statue there of a little girl to mark the place we remember their Lakeland Dale a baby they lost and mourned in that spot. 

When I mow beyond the Carriage House I could remember Dale for the work he did there one Christmas when the septic system failed. I remember Wesley there and I remember Wes when I mow along the west side of the house. The dryer vent is there and the fragrance reminds me of the kindness he rendered one weekend when he flew back to Michigan from his home and and Dylan and the girls in Dallas to move the laundry upstairs. I was speaking on an island one summer and got a frantic late-night call. Lois had found a snake in the washer. I called my Eagle-Scout brother-in-law and he drove over immediately and removed it. Lois was done going to the basement. Since then I have had it to myself. So I think of Wes when I smell the fragrance from the dryer vent. (Come to think of it, Dale helped with that project, too).

When I mow around the Carriage House I think of Kyle, our firstborn who when I was talking of making a writing place in the loft said, “Buy a door and the studs and I will come down on a Sunday after church and frame you in a wall and hang the door.” (Come to think of it Dale helped on that little project too). I think of Kyle when I look up and remember him blowing the leaves off the roof or when I see the mulch in the flowerbed in the teardrop he installed for Mother’s Day one year. I think of his wife Elizabeth talking quietly to Lois, and the January day they came and we took family pictures of them out back. 

Heidi comes to mind for some reason when I remember her on the stairs one day with tin foil in her hair. I’m not making this up. In my memory she has piece of tin foil in her hair and she is using her hands to tell her siblings a story as animated as a stand-up comedian. I could remember his a hundred places but remembering that day makes me smile. (And yes, I do have pictures this to prove I am not embellishing this story).

When I mow the back acre I think of our baby, Hope America and her handsome, quiet, steady Tim. They were married there at the foot of the cross on an August night in 2020. We set up a tent and laughed and danced into the night. There was laugher and joy that night. I left the cross there and when I mow the back I always remember that beautiful summer night and the joy of it and fight back tears. 

When I mow past the front I think of Holly how send us a beautiful watercolor and made cards of watercolor pictures of our home. She is going to write a children’s book someday about coming to Bittersweet. I remember Jesse harboring a tree the week of the wedding. I remember him when I mow around the fire ring. He made it that weekend of native stones. I use it continually and always think of him. I also think of him on another trip painting the front porch with bright, clean, white, fresh paint. 

Dan comes to mind as I mow around the round teardrop drive and I remember he and Kate and the boys leaving after Hope and Tim’s wedding. When they drove away, they were the last to leave and Lois and I look at each other with a powerful sense of love and accomplishment and gratefulness knowing the child-raising 40 years were now being us and a new chapter was beginning. I look down that road and remember Danny and Kate and the boys driving away. 

I pranked Chuk one day by hiding an old clock that in his car. The clock didn’t work and it represented a difficult passage in his life so he returned one day and deposited a pile of rotten pumpkins left over from a youth event and deposited the remains of the clock on the top. That took a while to clean up. I could remember Chuk when I mow past the porch and think of him singing and playing Whispering Jesse or I could remember him for a hundred other wonderful things, like how eager he and Cecilia are to visit and bring the kids and how endearing that is. 

Hazard the Wonder Yorkie now lives with Hope and Tim but it’s crazy. Sometimes when I come home I am still surprised he doesn’t greet me.

This evening while I was mowing a delightful idea came to me while I was mowing around the cluster of Maples where the little girl statue is. I always pray for Dale and Hannah when I mow there. I pray for their little foster-daughter Cia. When I mow around the cross on the back acre I pray for Hope and Time. Here is the idea: When I mow around or walk around the other place and see things that remind me of the children or grandchildren I will take that as a prompt to pray for them.

When I think of Aiden and Koen washing my tractor I will pray. When I remember Leon and Waylan exposing the stairs to the loft I will pray for them. When I remember Aspen sitting quietly in my chair in the writing loft I will pray for her. When I remember Laela chattering on about all the great ideas about what you could do with a loft like that I will pray for her. When I think of walking Keira out after the wedding, when I think of Koen shooting his gun or riding his bike. When I think of Denver, Gunnison, Routt, Aspen, Aiden, Bella, or Cia picking up windfall branches under the Walnut trees inturrpting my mowing I will pray for them. 

When I think of K2, Oliver, Leland playing out back, tossing a football I will pray for them. I will pray for Haley, June, and Bode when I mow over the spot where their daddy worked so hard to dug up the drain that weekend after Christmas one year. 

All around Bittersweet Farm are reminders to remember loved ones to the Lord. When I am done I have a feeling of satisfaction at the fresh beauty of the property and joy at remembering the people I love. 

Bittersweet Farm

June 27, 2923